Book A Flight - CHECK!

After struggling with my computer and becoming infuriated at the Virgin Atlantic website for about an hour, I was finally able to book my roundtrip flight to South Africa. I was originally planning on booking a one-way flight there now and a one-way flight home once I decided what my post-SALRC travel plans were, but it turns out that booking a one way flight is almost as expensive as booking a roundtrip flight.

I chose Virgin because it was the cheapest out of all the airlines and even they wanted about $2000 for a one-way ticket. I tried to book a flight that would have had me arriving in South Africa on Wednesday, June 9th and returning August 14th, but as soon as I got done entering all of my info, Virgin told me that the flight on the 9th was no longer available. So, after trying both the 8th and then the 7th as my arrival date, I was able to book a flight out of LAX on the 5th that had me arriving shortly after 8am on the 7th. However, by the time I got that part of the trip booked, the 14th was no longer available, so now I am leaving South Africa on the 15th and returning the 16th. The price of the flight is only about $35 more expensive than the initial one I attempted to book, however, with the added expense of 3 more days in South Africa the total cost jumps to about $250 extra. I'm not going to complaint though - it gives me more time in a beautiful new country and I intend to make the most of it.

I've never been a fan of flying - maybe I've seen Final Destination one too many times. There is just something about it that makes me uneasy. Maybe it how cramped and crowded planes have become post-9/11. I remember flying as a child and having whole rows to myself to lay down in or to stretch across. Now it seems like every flight is packed and overpacked. It makes a person feel like they've been reduced to cattle - sometimes it's hard to resist the urge to let out a deep "MMMOOOOO!" Maybe I'll do that someday and see what kind of looks I get. But then again, maybe not - especially not on a 11+ hour transatlantic flight...that would be a long time to have someone pissed off at you because they think you were mooing at them specifically.

But there is something unsettling about planes, especially the take off and the landing - probably the take off more than the landing. When you land you just want to let out a "Thank God!" and run off the plane and kiss the ground - you're just thankful to be safely back on terra firma where man belongs! The take off is terrible though. Feeling the plane defy the inviolable law of gravity just seems wrong. I need to find a stress ball to put into a vice grip during take off for this long trip, perhaps that will help ease some of my anxiety about messing with gravity.

Fear of take offs and landings aside, I do feel pretty confident that nothing will happen to my flight. I'm flying on one of the new double decker planes - you know, the ones that LAX had to build a new terminal for so that they would be able to handle them. That's going to be pretty cool. It will be an interesting experience to fly on one of those. The only other large plane I flew on was a Boeing 747 when I went to Hawaii after my senior year of high school. I believe that one had 3x5x3 seating. This one is just as wide but has 2x4x2 seating on the bottom level and then the top level is uber posh suites for the really rich travelers who want to be able to have a room to themselves. It might be fun to fly like that when I'm really old - just to be able to say that I've done it - but for now I am content to fly in economy, just so long as I get there safely.